PARIS — Iraq has emerged at the bottom of a survey that measures corruption around the globe. The Corruption Perceptions Index, conducted by Transparency International in Berlin and released Monday, also showed that the United States, the occupying power in Iraq, slipped three notches to 20th place in the survey of 163 countries.

Iraq dropped 23 places to 160th and now ranks alongside Guinea and Myanmar. Haiti earned the lowest score, 1.8 on a scale of 1 to 10, making it the nation where bribery, kickbacks and embezzlement are regarded as most widespread.

Finland, Iceland and New Zealand were all in first place with scores of 9.6, making them the nations regarded as the world's cleanest.

The index measures perceptions of corruption by public officials and politicians for private gain. The data for 2006 were amassed from 12 surveys of business people and country experts over the past two years. That was a change from the methodology used by Transparency International in 2005, when the survey ranked 159 countries based on data gathered over three years.

Since the survey began in 1995, Northern European countries regularly have ranked at the top of the list. Among the top-10 countries this year were Denmark, Sweden, Norway and the Netherlands. Regularly appearing at the bottom of the list are poor African countries, which this year included Sudan, Congo and Chad.

Huguette Labelle, chairwoman of Transparency International, said the data suggested a direct link between misdeeds by public officials and economic stagnation. She said misappropriated government money "feeds a vicious circle, where those with access to funds or bribes take what they can, because they can, locking the poor in poverty."

But Transparency International also lambasted the role played by intermediaries from rich economies who help political elites to launder, store and profit from unjustly acquired wealth, such as looted state assets.

Kenya, which slipped two places to 142, was a prime example of a country beset by scandals linked to the theft of public funds, and where shell companies and bank accounts in European and off-shore jurisdictions greased the wheels of wrongdoing.

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The chief executive of Transparency International, David Nussbaum, warned that "firms and professional associations of lawyers, accountants and bankers have a special responsibility to take stronger action against corruption."

The survey said that bribery in Kenya costs citizens about $1 billion each year.

The results were not just a disappointment for the world's poorest countries, all of which scored below 5 with the exception of two African nations, Botswana and Mauritius. The survey identified a number of developed and middle- income countries with a significant worsening in perceived levels of corruption, including Brazil, Israel and Jordan.

The results also were a blow for the United States, the world's biggest economy, at a time when its global leadership is suffering because of the unpopularity of the war in Iraq.

The United States scored 7.3 - the same as Chile and Belgium - and ranked two notches behind France. In 2005, the United States scored 7.6 and ranked 17th, a notch above France.

Analysts have said that the failure by the U.S. authorities to detect the wrongdoing at companies like WorldCom and Enron damaged perceptions among the world's business leaders.

More recently, the Democrats have portrayed President George W. Bush's Republican Party as awash in a "culture of corruption" - tainted by scandals over congressional pages, links to Jack Abramoff, the convicted lobbyist, and claims of financial wrongdoing.